


i rinse my eyes

by madeinessos



Category: Black Panther (2018)
Genre: Early Mornings, Gen, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Post-Black Panther (2018)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:13:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26306887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madeinessos/pseuds/madeinessos
Summary: A quiet moment between T'Challa and Nakia after the battles.
Relationships: Nakia (Black Panther) & T'Challa
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	i rinse my eyes

**Author's Note:**

> Title from Samira Negrouche’s “In the Shadow of Grenada.”

When Nakia asked him what he was looking at, T’Challa didn’t answer, not right away.

He let the pause breathe.

He took his time to gather his thoughts.

Time – he measured it with the smoke slowly swirling from Nakia’s mouth. Pinkish grey, a smoked salmon smell. He measured it with the pinches of pain whenever he prodded his hangnail. Pinch-awake.

But it was all right, taking a while. They had known each other’s secrets since childhood: when he’d whispered to her that he watched some Border horses mating, and when she’d confided in him that she really liked it when fish helplessly flopped about the dry cobblestones of the River District. Wherever their relationship status stood today, and the amorphous smoke floating about Nakia in the pre-dawn light had a more clearly defined form than their relationship, they had always been friends first. Best friends.

T’Challa knew that right now, she was not really asking in order to know.

And so he waited until the pause exhaled. By then faint sunlight had already crept from the night skies. He watched its ghostly glint on Nakia’s lacquered cigarette holder. They were both leaning against the terrace balustrade. Birnin Zana smelled of stale ashes and rain-drenched earth.

Finally, T’Challa answered her. “The river. I was looking at the river, Nakia.”

Nakia blew out a ring. It bobbed in the air before cascading with the others about her shoulders, down to her Panther necklace. Her shoulder was almost touching his bicep.

“Stevens?” she said, with a carefully bland tone. Save for a rapidly healing scar across her cheek, Nakia’s face gave nothing away; she’d always been better at this than him. Brooding Nakia, warm Nakia.

And yes, T’Challa had also thought of his cousin, so he allowed himself a nod. They’d taken his cousin to the river, he and Mother and Shuri, seven years ago now. The river at the heart of Wakanda. He wondered if his cousin had found his way to the ocean yet, or if some part of him lingered. T’Challa was not quite sure what to hope for, if he was being honest.

Nakia looked at him. There was a trace of a smile on her face. “What is it, really?”

“Just the river. Really.” T’Challa glanced at her Panther necklace, the grey of smoke and rushing waters. He smiled a little. “I just find it – remarkable – that I apparently missed five years of it.”

Nakia reached out and briefly squeezed his hand. “Yes,” she sighed. “A long time.” She was older than him now.

And there was something she was not telling him. T’Challa didn’t press her. She could take her time with him, too.

Sunrise now. T’Challa watched it unfold over the city. Watched it gleam on the deep green waters, on the gentle blackness of the marble balustrade. Slowly, warmly, it swept away the silhouettes. The smoke and the smell of ashes even formed impressions of shapes.

T’Challa blinked. And blinked. And took a deep breathe. Rain-drenched earth, and stale ashes, and smoked salmon. And the river, sun-warmed.

Nakia slanted a look at him. “How’s that?” she said, kindly. 

“Much better.”

She nodded. She had never coddled and hovered, Nakia. But she was always there, in those moments which counted.

“I missed you,” she suddenly said. “It really was a long time.”

How could he return it honestly? The time he’d lost was something he was told about. To T’Challa, he had seen her only yesterday, a week to the day when they had amicably agreed not to fall back into a committed relationship. And now, an hour ago, she had told him that she had someone else. It felt like jumping through time with his eyes closed. But at the same time, he felt wistful thinking of those five lost years. He felt her grief as if it were his own. So he only said, “It was.”

Nakia nodded again. She understood his unspoken things.

She blinked and gazed at the sunny river. After a while she said, “I understand.”

“I was also thinking,” added T’Challa, after a moment, “about breakfast. Tell me, please, all about your plans for your fortieth birthday.”

Nakia grinned. “All right. Breakfast, then.”

They basked in the sunrise for a few more moments.

Then, kimoyo beads clacking together, they headed to breakfast.

It had never sounded promising as it did today, breakfast. The simple joy of it. Sitting close together around a full, warm table, for hours. T’Challa wanted to know about the five years of Nakia’s life he’d missed. He wanted to know how her ceremony as Black Panther had gone. He wanted to know if she’d seen his cousin in the ancestral plane, if Nakia had spoken with Erik. He wanted to know if she felt friendly towards Bast again. He wanted to know who was the person she was currently with – the thing she was not yet telling him, and he wanted her to know that it was all right with him if she didn’t want to talk about that yet. By Bast, he wanted to talk about a lot of things with her. He smiled widely to himself when he realised that they had plenty of time for it all.

T’Challa had the time now.

_fin_


End file.
